A Cup of Stars, Stories by Joseph Monninger (Burkina Faso 1975-77)

A Cup of Stars, Stories by Joseph Monninger (Burkina-Faso 1975-77)

Available on Amazon ($10.99); 458 pages; ISBN 979-8649356534

Reviewed by Eugénie de Rosier (Philippines 2006-08)

A Cup of Stars, Stories by Joseph Monniger, invites through oral lore and historic anecdotes and contemporary writing in this long book. Two fantasies about supernatural women—are re-spun tales inspired by an Irish myth and an Arctic fable. Kathleen’s Celtic spirit entangles with an injured WWI soldier healing in rural Maine. He walks across the state to claim and rebuild an inheritance, a ramshackle farm, and his life takes on paranormal shifts.

Sedna, hemmed in by patriarchy, is forced into a bad marriage to a brutish “evil witch-man,” who changed shapes. Inspired by Inuit folklore, she flees her husband across a lifetime and around the globe, adopting metaphysical abilities to breathe in water, take to winged flight, and gallop with herds, until she confronts him for his cruelty.

A novella opens in an Austrian mountain village, Göstling an der Ybbs, to William, 17. His brow-beating father and exhausted mother managed a hunting lodge/inn. It’s 1938, after the Nazis annexed Austria. Often, men come to the lodge to hunt boar on horseback, over drink, and turn quick to anger. The Nazi element flaunts arrogance.

Other travelers appear and depart from the lodge, as an older woman and a big-boned man arrive. Madame Lacome, French, once titled, was a credible medium. Her assistant, Herr Schliemer, in his 40s and Hungarian, handles their travel logistics and steers the horse and covered cart. William was suspicious of and attracted to Madame and they conversed. He attends to guests’ requests, cares for stock. Madame asked him to pass out her handbills in town. The villagers, intrigued by her mystery, arrange appointments.

Across days, guests and hunters arrive and leave the inn. In the evenings, men gather in its sitting room. Schliemer entered and passed out Madame’s cards. He seems unaware that his presence is ill-timed. Two Nazis enjoyed a drink among other guests. All study Schliemer, his size, foreignness, aversion to political talk, and deem he and Madame are Jews.

After a séance, William, trying to grasp what had happened, asked Madame if the murdered Gwendolyn’s spirit had spoken through the servant girl at the table? Had that caused her body to spasm? Madame was indirect in her answers, when a knock came at her receiving room door. A maid entered and said there was a difficulty in the barn. Rowdies from town, William’s father, two soldiers, were gathered, drunk, and wanted to run Madame out of town. Schliemer was there. The situation was collapsing. Madame fled the room, down the steps, out of the inn, to the barn.

A score of short stories are written from the white-male perspective at varying stages of each lead character’s life: grade schoolers and a child’s accidental death; high schoolers trying to figure out girls, amid sudden and frequent lust. We see inside a happy marriage, a divorce, the routines of married life, a second marriage, men’s job troubles, planned events that go awry. The tales are amusing or ridiculous or shallow, some had depth. The locales are the North-Atlantic states.

While Monninger has more than a score of published books to his name, his stories in this book, may largely appeal to adult male readers (18-29) who recalled similar experiences in their own lives.

A detective interviewed a man, who claimed he was a vampire and not a drug dealer, who sold ecstasy to twelve-year-olds. A new private high-school teacher met its fund raiser, and he became smitten with her verve for life and any bedroom. He noted her pointy teeth. Months later, they believe their frolics in bed make them marriage material for the other. He saw his soon-to-be father-in-law sitting in the pew slowly shaking his head back and forth, as their vows were spoken.

In “Lichen,” an Alaskan fishing trip portrays a husband, Bill, who wants the challenge of fly fishing for coho in bush country. His skills and practice have only tackled Pennsylvania’s brook trout streams. He didn’t tell, his wife, Lois, of his hope, still felt some responsible that she enjoy herself, too. She, a microscopic photographer, was happy to study shoreline plant life, as the guide, Keith, paddled. Keith understood Bill’s two perspectives and that his wife did not. He offered Bill a few tips, which he knew Bill didn’t want, but still mentioned that Bill was using incorrect techniques for Alaska. A bear appeared on the shore behind Bill and distress and disappointment ensue. This story was rich with misunderstanding, fear, and irritation, so common in our lives. Yet it can be overcome with a little grace, if we’re willing to lead with that.

About the author

Joe Monninger’s work has appeared in American Heritage, Scientific American, Reader’s Digest, Glamour, The Boston Globe, Sports Illustrated and Ellery Queen, among other publications. Over his 30 year writing journey through multiple genres in fiction, nonfiction, and young adult novels, Monninger has attracted significant praise: Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Richard Eder, reviewing Monninger’s 1991 novel The Viper Tree, compared him to renowned author Graham Greene; in 2007, NPR’s Bill Littlefield said Monninger’s historical boxing book, Two Ton, deserves a spot among that sport’s classic literature.

About the reviewer

Eugénie de Rosier’s work has most recently appeared in Passengers Journal, The Mantelpiece (Iceland), Peace Corps Worldwide, HUFFPOST, Antioch Review, Big Muddy, and her commentaries have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Philippine Daily Inquirer, elsewhere. Her short-story collection was a finalist in Holy Cow! Press’ sole collection contest, 2018. She received numerous first-place awards from the National Association of Government Communicators. A former Norcroft writers’ resident, she is looking for book publishing representation.